Treatment amendments - final final one

Programme: Killing between the lines

Duration: 5minutes

Audience: Those interested in a psychological/crime thrillers and also suitable for those who enjoy films with neo-noir aspects. Rated 15 due to imitable violent behaviour though mostly implied violence.

Anyone above this age may find this enjoyable, though a student audience may find it most appealing.

Resume: Andrew Francis is an unstable man he believes that his wife, Maria Francis, is unaware of him being a serial killer. He writes the accounts of the murders in his diary and narrates the film. There are flashbacks of murders of girls whilst he is writing in a diary and narrating them. The first killing in the film shows outside a tunnel where it seems he is following the girl and kills her with a brick. The second killing is where it seems he's following a girl down a ginnel and kills her with by repeatedly beating her then walking away after the murder has taken place. He returns home and gets a drink from the fridge, after he takes a drink he pauses and suddenly he drops the can, it then cuts to Maria writing in the diary, then it cuts back to Andrew turning his head. It cuts back to Maria who is flicking through the pages in the diary and then back to Andrew looking around to reveal Maria aiming a gun at him. It cuts back to Maria now writing in the diary just like Andrew did before then it goes back to Andrew who's been shot in the head, he drops the can as before and sinks to the ground dead. There's a flashback of Maria putting pills in Andrew's drink to show she's been drugging him and giving it to him. The film ends with Maria putting the diary back on a shelf with subjective narration this time in her voice implying she was the killer all along.

Suggested elements:

a) Sin City-like neo-noir effects for flashbacks

b) Narration

c) Colour filters

d) Unexpected twist

e) Sound effects

Viral marketing research

An idea for viral marketing we would present an advert for a book in an innovative way. As The Dark Knight released in 2008 had a very successful and original marketing campaign it would be something we would be influenced by.

The Dark Knight based their viral marketing on the fake election of Harvey Dent which is part of the film, following the tagline of The Joker 'Why so serious?' through the website http://whysoserious.com/.

Homepage to whysoserious.com

This original viral campaign involved images of Harvey Dent's campaign for election which were vandalised. 

This is an image of Harvey Dent's campaign for DA which has been defaced to look similar to The Joker's appearance and says "I believe in Harvey Dent too". This allowed fans to get involved and many posed as The Joker/as the Joker's henchman and competing in scavenger hunts. 

Image of vandalised newspaper article mocking Batman implied to have been done by Joker or his henchmen. 

Here is an overview of the viral campaign.

This could influence us to set up something similar to do with our film and make it seem like a real thing like the political election for the Dark Knight film. We would also base our film on a tagline, our tagline is 'Oblivious to everything' as it is a memorable part of the film which is repeated twice in our film for effect, similarly to the Batman's tagline 'Why so serious?'.

Final script (we promise)

This is the final final final change to our script. It has been changed due to the amendments made to the ending of the film. This ending makes the twist to our film much more effective.

Reconstruction of Ending

1.) When Andrew picks up the can of Cherry aide there is a shot of his legs turning around and the can of pop falls to the floor and spills out with no sound!

2.) It then cuts to the study base with Maria Francis reading the diary.

3.) It goes back to Andrew with a shot of his face turning around.

4.) Cuts back to the study base of her still reading the diary, flicking the pages

5.) Cuts back to a POV shot of Andrew turning to face Maria with the gun in her hand

6.) Cuts back to maria writing in the diary

7.) Cuts back to the sound effect of the gun shot showing Andrew dropping his can and then falls to the ground.

8.) Shows Andrew on the ground, dead.

9.) Shows a flashback of Maria putting pills in Andrew's drink and giving it to Andrew in the living room.

10.) Cuts back to the study base of Maria putting the book away on the shelf. With a voice over of her saying, "My stupid husband... 'Oblivious to everything.'

=========================

These are the amendments of the ending of our film, we both feel that this gives a more effective and dramatic ending to the film and creates much more suspense than the previous twist which is ideal for a film of the thriller genre. We chose to end the film with the tagline 'Oblivious to everything' this is because we plan to build our marketing campaign to this tagline, similarly to The Dark Knights' 'Why so serious?' tagline. This will also allow the audience to realise why we have emphasised the tagline so much as it refers to her husband being oblivious to the fact it is actually her wife committing the murders rather than Andrew.

Shooting day 3 - Update

Location

Andrew Francis Kitchen

Study Base

Script

Characters

Andrew Francis

Maria Francis

Props

Canned Drink

Gun

Diary

Study Base Props Table, PC etc (We haven't decided what we are going to use to make the room look like an office until we start filming)

Costumes

Andrew Francis (Casual clothes)

Maria Francis (Smart Casual clothes)

*To show a reversal of power

Storyboard

Camera Shots

Shooting day 2 Update (Eastgate)

Because we have scrapped the bathroom killing scene.

Location

Study Room

Eastgate Alleyway

Props

Study base Props - (Generally Desk, PC, Books etc.) Anything that makes it look like a study base.

Chair

Pen?

Diary

Bag

Script

Costumes

Clothes for Andrew Francis (smart casual clothes)

Laura May (Casual clothes)

Storyboard

Camera Shots

Establishing shot of Eastgate street

Angle shot of girl walking

Close up of girl

Medium close up of turning into ginnel

Establish shot of ginnel

Medium close up of girl (side)

Close up of girl ( side angle)

Medium shot behind girl

Close up of hand on shoulder

Close up of girl turning around

Medium close up of girl turning around

Medium close up of hitting the girl (figure is off shot and can only see the hands)

Close up of the girl

Medium close up

Close up camera movement upwards

Long shot of figure

Medium close up of kicking

Close up of kicking

Long shot of figure

Medium shot of girl

Close up of the girl with camera movement

Sorry, no filming today...

Due to not being able to get an actress needed for our filming the scene today we are going to reschedule this. We may film the Study room/kitchen scene until we find the actresses needed for the scenes where the girls are murdered, as we already have the actors sorted for this part of the film.

Unfortunately, we could not get an actress for our film

Shooting Day 1 - Update

Scene 1- Study Base and alleyway killing

Props

Diary

Pen?

Chair

Study base Props - (Generally Desk, PC, Books etc.) Anything that makes it look like a study base.

Brick

Characters

Andrew Francis

Jenna Mansfield

Camera Shots

Medium shot (Panning of the room)

Establishing shot (shows Andrew at a desk)

Angled shot of Andrew at desk

Close up of diary

Close up Andrew

Angled shot of Andrew

Close up diary

Close up Andrew

Medium shot angle (writing in diary)

Close up of diary

Close up of Andrew

Medium shot of Andrew at desk

Close up of diary

Close up of Andrew

Establish shot (girl walking towards tunnel)
Angled medium shot (girl)

Close up behind the girl turning around)

Medium shot of girl (turns around)

Angle medium shot

Medium shot of girl

Medium close up of brick being raised

Close up of brick being raised (camera movement)

Medium close up of girl

Close up of brick

Script

Costumes

Storyboard

Clothes for Andrew Francis (smart casual clothes)

Jenna Mansfield (Casual clothes)

Shooting day - Eastgate street

Monday 28th November we plan to start shooting, however this remains to be seen as the weather forecast isn't too promising. After researching the weather forecast, it seems there is a chance of rain.
We plan to film in our lesson between 10:50 and 12:20, but I can run through past dinner as I don't have a lesson after dinner giving me the opportunity to film up to 3pm.


Equipment/props/costume needed

Video camera (Sony HDV500)
Andrew Francis/Maria - black coat, jeans/trousers
Girl - Casual wear (no real preference)
Script and shooting script for the scene

New Idea for our Film

In the kitchen killing scene we are going to have Andrew Francis get out a can of the fridge but we could make it a can of cherry aide. Therefore due to the colour of the drink being red this could represent the colour of blood. So we don't have to use fake blood and shooting the killing in perhaps a black and white filter will make this an iconic part of the film. I feel as though this will look really effective and have a big impact on our audience.

Shooting script

Here is the list of shots we will need for the overall film. These may be altered depending on how well the shot works with the film, but here is a list of what we aim to adhere to.

Shooting day 1.

Location: Study room

Shots needed:

First scene

Medium shot (Panning of the room)

Establishing shot (shows Andrew at a desk)

Angled shot of Andrew at desk

Close up of diary

Close up Andrew

Angled shot of Andrew

Close up diary

Close up Andrew

Medium shot angle (writing in diary)

Close up of diary

Close up of Andrew

Medium shot of Andrew at desk

Close up of diary

Close up of Andrew

Title sequence

Final scene - Maria

----------------------------

Location: Kitchen/outside house

Shots needed:

Establishing shot of Andrew walking to the house

Medium side shot of Andrew

Close up of putting keys in the door

Medium close up of his back

close up of opening door

Medium close up of opening the door

Reverse of door opening - medium close up

(with camera movement as Andrew walks past)

Medium close up

================================================================

Shooting day 2.

Location: Alhambra

Shots needed:
Establish shot (girl walking towards tunnel)
Angled medium shot (girl)

Close up behind the girl turning around)

Medium shot of girl (turns around)

Angle medium shot

Medium shot of girl

Medium close up of brick being raised

Close up of brick being raised (camera movement)

Medium close up of girl

Close up of brick

================================================================

Shooting day 3.

Location: Ginnel, East Gate street

Shots needed:

Establishing shot of Eastgate street

Angle shot of girl walking

Close up of girl

Medium close up of turning into ginnel

Establish shot of ginnel

Medium close up of girl (side)

Close up of girl ( side angle)

Medium shot behind girl

Close up of hand on shoulder

Close up of girl turning around

Medium close up of girl turning around

Medium close up of hitting the girl (figure is off shot and can only see the hands)

Close up of the girl

Medium close up

Close up camera movement upwards

Long shot of figure

Medium close up of kicking

Close up of kicking

Long shot of figure

Medium shot of girl

Close up of the girl with camera movement

================================================================

Final shot list

This is the final shot list in order of what they will appear in the film:

1. Medium shot (Panning of the room)

2. Establishing shot (shows Andrew at a desk)

3. Angled shot of Andrew at desk

4. Close up of diary

5. Close up Andrew

6. Angled shot of Andrew

7. Close up diary

8. Close up Andrew

9. Establish shot (girl walking towards tunnel)

10. Angled medium shot (girl)

11. Medium shot angle (writing in diary)

12. Close up of diary

13. Close up of Andrew

14. Angled medium shot (girl)

15. Close up behind the girl turning around)

16. Medium shot of girl (turns around)

17. Angle medium shot

18. Medium shot of Andrew at desk

19. Close up of diary

20. Close up of Andrew

21. Medium shot of girl

22. Medium close up of brick being raised

23. Close up of brick being raised (camera movement)

24. Medium close up of girl

25. Close up of brick

26. Establishing shot of Eastgate street

27. Angle shot of girl walking

28. Close up of girl

29. Medium close up of turning into ginnel

30. Establish shot of ginnel

31. Medium close up of girl (side)

32. Close up of girl ( side angle)

33. Medium shot behind girl

34. Close up of hand on shoulder

35. Close up of girl turning around

36. Medium close up of girl turning around

37. Medium close up of hitting the girl (figure is off shot and can only see the hands)

38. Close up of the girl

39. Medium close up

40. Close up camera movement upwards

41. Long shot of figure

42. Medium close up of kicking

43. Close up of kicking

44. Long shot of figure

45. Medium shot of girl

46. Close up of the girl with camera movement

47. Establishing shot of outside of house
48. Medium shot panning
49. Medium close up

Competition Prize Idea

This could be a perfect way to promote our film because it will get our film company name out to the public. They will get the chance to win a prize within our budget and create interest.

We could announce the competition in our radio advert because millions of people listen to it and we will get two promotional techniques for the price of one.

They could text the answer because its the quickest and easiest approach for the public, making it nice and simple for them to enter.

The Question is as follows:

What name is the independent film company that produced 'Killing Between the Lines?'

A: Psych Films

B: Bike Fims

C: Maniac Films

The reason for this is to get the key concepts of what we wanted out to the public:

1.) The films name

2.) Our film Company name

This will hopefully get the public to notice our name.

Making the question easy is simple, because if we made it difficult no-one will enter it and get less interest! Once they send their answer in to our company by texting 'A, B or C' to a 'real' number we will select one lucky winner at random.

The prize giveaway will be a Brand new Kindle curtesy of Amazon for £89 with a £10 free voucher to buy the books of their choice. Because our film is related to the theme of books. We feel as though this prize is a good incentive to enter the competition and makes them interested in films, including more of ours in the future.

Ways we are going to Promote our film

Promoting our independent film 'Killing Between the Lines' is going to be one of the most important parts in the entire production. Trying to make our promotion low and as no costing as possible. I don't wish for us to outsource our film to a marketing and distributing company because no one will have more enthusiasm and passion to sell our film to our audience than US!

Different ideas to promote our film

Social Media - Such as Facebook. Twitter will help promote our film if we get positive feedback from celebrities.

Video Marketing

Email Marketing

Integrated Partnerships (Such as working with different businesses) E.g.: McDonalds however due to our film's genre of a psychological thriller I can't vision any toys being inside an happy meal.

Posters

Leaflets

Billboards in big cities Eg.: Manchester

We will defiantly want to use Facebook because it has approximately 800 million therefore if we use mouth-to-mouth communication this could spread quickly and become an overnight success.

We would love to get an integrated Partnerships however realistically this will be difficult to accomplish, therefore eye-catching billboards, posters and a radio advert will all give a wide variety to target our audience.

I would like to do something big and different to promote our film to make it stand out such as perhaps, making a toy, or a competition prize however this may be out of our depth and due to time constraints and not enough people working in our group this might not be produced.

However, you never know....

E-mail to our distribution Company

I have decided to e-mail dogwoof to politely ask them if they see potential in our film and if they would be interested in distributing our film in the real world.

Hopefully we will get a positive repsonse. Fingers crossed!

And the winner is...

After reviewing numerous distribution companies we decided that dogwoof was the best choice. Dogwoof would enable us to use innovative marketing to promote our film and distribute it in numerous ways. It would give us the opportunity to fund and show our film on a global scale which makes it the far better choice than the other companies.
Dogwoof gives opportunity for niche films and does not concentrate on the mainstream. This allows our film to be given the chance to succeed and be shown to a variety audience.



This is a trailer of the film Blood in the Mobile which is currently distributed in cinemas by dogwoof. This is a documentary about the connection between mobile phones and the civil war in Congo.



This is the trailer to Gasland, a film that goes a long way into spreading public awareness about gas drilling and the risks it poses on human and environmental health.

Thank you dogwoof, we are looking forward to be working with you.

Possible distributors

Before we make the decision to entrust our film with a company, we though background research would be essential to enable us to make the right decision.

Dogwoof






http://dogwoof.com/
Dogwoof is a UK distributor that releases films nationwide through theatrical, DVD, mobile, TV and online platforms. Dogwoof back 'their releases with major marketing campaigns'.

With the ability to distribute our film with a variety of methods, as well as the popular Itunes, makes Dogwoof a strong contender and they are a company we are very interested in.

UK film Council

http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk

UK film council is a distribution company funded by the National Lottery. It gives support to new filmmakers and gets a wider choice of films to audiences throughout the UK.
UK Film Council has £15million a year to invest across the development, production and completion of feature films.

This interests our company as it helps fund emerging talent, however it does not offer the same marketing benefits as Dogwoof.

Entertainment Film distributors

http://www.entertainmentfilms.co.uk
Entertainment film distributors distributes in DVD rental, theatrical and retail fields as well as licensing a substantial catalogue in both Pay-TV and Free-TV sectors.

Though it would give us the opportunity to show our film on the 'big screen', we decided that our film is not as well suited to cinema and rather to be shown on the internet and retailed on Itunes. Also, other companies offer funding and provide much better advertising. Therefore Entertainment film distributor does not make the cut.

Other considered companies:
Leftfilms
Launching Films
Independent cinema office

List of things we still need to do

Camera Shot List

Shooting day equipment

Location for Study Base

Location for Andrew's home and Lee Bains home

Characters (Who's playing who)

Audience Research

Floor Plans

Opening title Storyboard

For the locations of Andrews study room and his home we will be using the home of one of Chris's friends.

We shall take photographs of these locations on the day of our filming.

Changes to our film

Due to the changes we have made in the climax of our film we have decided to cut out the bathroom killing scene. This will make the plot of the film easier for our audience to understand since the twist is that Andrew's wife Maria Francis was committing the murders, not him.

The film will not make sense if we film Andrew about to commit the murder in the bathroom, even if the camera blanks out before we hear the sound effect of the gun firing.

Shot List Template

http://www.filmcontracts.net/contracts/form.php?id=1022

We are going to print out and use this as our shot list template so we can write down the shots for each scene and use this as we are filming.

Treatment - redone

Programme: Killing between the lines
Duration: 5minutes

Audience: Those interested in a psychological/crime thrillers and also suitable for those who enjoy films with neo-noir aspects. Rated 15 due to imitable violent behaviour though mostly implied violence.
Anyone above this age may find this enjoyable, though a student audience may find it most appealing.

Resume: Andrew Francis is an unstable man he believes that his wife, Maria Francis, is unaware of him being a serial killer. He writes the accounts of the murders in his diary and narrates the film. There are flashbacks of murders of girls whilst he is writing in a diary and narrating them. The first killing in the film shows outside a tunnel where it seems he is following the girl and kills her with a brick. The second killing is where it seems he's following a girl down a ginnel and kills her with by repeatedly beating her then walking away after the murder has taken place. He returns home and gets a drink from the fridge, he realises his wife is in the kitchen with a gun pointing at him, she pulls the trigger and shoots him dead. There's a flashback of Maria putting pills in Andrew's drink to show she's been drugging him and giving it to him. Flash backs occur of the previous killings but reveal it was actually Maria who had killed those people (wearing the same clothes as the figure). The films ends with Maria writing in the diary in which Andrew was writing in, she closes it and puts it back on the shelf. She walks out of the room shutting the door behind her.

Suggested elements:

a) Sin City-like neo-noir effects for flashbacks

b) Narration

c) Colour filters

d) Unexpected twist

e) Sound effects

Final script

We felt that the twist at the end wasn't 'shocking' enough and decided to change the script. We are much happier with this.

We have also removed the bathroom scene. Firstly, because it shows Andrew killing the man and when he's not actually the real killer. Secondly, it makes it easier by not using too many locations.

Viral Advert Idea

The idea we have come up for our viral advert will involve our films tagline above the photograph. The tagline which we will decide on will be a line from our script. Such as Batman's tagline from the film, "Why so serious?" The viral advert will be based on part of the script where our tagline will come from.

The tagline we have eventually decided for our film is 'Oblivious to everything' because Andrew Francis speaks this in the film whilst talking about one of his victims however our new twist in the film shows infect himself being the victim and he was oblivious to everything going off around him due to his mental state.

The idea of our viral advert is:

A photograph of someone writing in the diary in Andrew's study room. Wearing half of his his smart clothes and half casual, due to the fact of Andrew's identity. The fact that the photo of someones face is removed and or replaced with someone else's will make our audience feel more involved.

The tagline above 'Oblivious to everything' will suggest that our audience is oblivious to what is going off around them, just like our unsuspecting character Andrew. Creating mystery and wonder making everyone question who the real serial killer is.

Viral Advert

By researching the viral advert 'Shifty' this has gave us inspiration to create one of our own.

http://www.slideshare.net/mickgoogan/g322-section-b-shifty-case-study

Even though this advert was banned it gained good publicity for the film.

We would like to send ours through e-mail by taking a photograph of a particular situation perhaps within our film. Although this is speculation.

By noticing the headline above the photo this will quickly let our target audience speculate on what our film is about.

The date and time above the photograph makes the photo look professional and realistic.

This can also create fun and a sense of humour towards them. Therefore with a good idea for our own they will pass the advert onto their friends and acquaintances, creating more publicity for 'Killing Between The Lines'

Audience feedback - filmed

Here is a video of us filming audience to get valuable feedback.

Interviewer: Lewis

Camera: Chris

Editing: Chris

This feedback proved useful because it gave us an insight in who seemed to be interested in our film. It showed positive views and showed that there was interest in this film. It showed that the rating of the film was correct and gave us further insight into what kind of music to use i.e. eery/creepy music to add tension.

Audience feedback-written

1. What is your occupation?

- Student

2. What is your age?

- 17

3. Have you previously seen any short films?

- yes

4. If yes; What interested you in those films?

- short and interesting

5. Do you think our film would work well as a short film?

- yes

6. What is your opinion on the plot of the film?

- interesting

7. What do you think of the character of Andrew Francis and do you think he is a believable serial killer?

-  Probably

8. We have given the film a rating of 15; do you agree or disagree?

- it depends how graphic it is

9. What genre of thriller films do you enjoy the most?

• Action
• Crime
• Psychological
• Conspiracy
• Other (please state) - horror

10. Is the film appropriate to its genre?

- yes

11. Where would you expect this film to be displayed?

- youtube and cannes

12. Are there any films you have seen which are similar to our film?

- The Departed

13. What kind of music and sound effects would you expect in a psychological thriller?

- Scary tense music

14. Would you be interested in seeing our film?

- yes
==================================
This feedback shows that our film does what it intends to - interest and stays to the theme of a thriller. It shows that our film is correctly rated as we don't plan to make it too graphic anyway. It also gives insight into which kind of music we would use and where we could exhibit the film. Due to noted similarities to The Departed, which gives us ideas and we could delve into that film for various ideas i.e. lighting, shots, cinematography, mise en scene etc. Ultimately, the person we questioned would be interested in seeing the film which is very promising. With the other audience feedback and similarities in the answers we have found an audience in college students around 16-18 though we feel a slightly older audience would feel interest in the film too.